Project Russia magazine spoke with Grigory Revzin about the architectural results of 2012. One of the main topics of conversation was the Russian pavilion at the XIII Architecture Biennale in Venice, whose commissioner was Revzin. The critic, in particular, spoke about why Skolkovo was chosen as the theme of the pavilion, and what role Sergei Tchoban and Sergei Kuznetsov played in organizing the exposition. He outlined his attitude to the Greater Moscow competition: “I have one but important remark about Greater Moscow - there is an obvious frivolity of the customer's intentions. It's like Brezhnev's food program. Well, we worked it out, well, we wrote it, but there was no idea to carry it out. He shared his opinion about the new chief architect of the capital: “The appointment of Sergei Kuznetsov means a generational change. Now Kuznetsov does not have a generation of his own. But he will raise it. If Sergei sat down for a long time, and he has plans for a long time, then it is clear that within five years we will get new names, new bureaus”. And he suggested what caused the shortage of architectural critics in Russia.
But back to 2013, which is likely to be equally rich in architectural events. On Thursday, it became known about the approval of the new composition of the architectural council of Moscow. Archi.ru talked about this with Sergei Kuznetsov, who headed the council. The chief architect of the capital, in particular, said on what principle the new composition was formed: “It’s not that we sat down and wrote a list of surnames pleasant to our ears and decided that it would be an arch council. We have collected recommendations from representatives of various public organizations related in one way or another to the design. He promised that the rotation of the participants will take place annually. He also commented on the plans for holding competitions among development projects. Izvestia wrote in more detail about the mechanism of competitions, as well as about the territories in which Moscow is planning to work it out.
On February 14, another, no less important event took place in the capital: the first meeting of the Council for the Development of Public Spaces with the participation of the mayor of the city Sergei Sobyanin, which included architects and urbanists, officials and artists. The main goal of the Council is to transform Moscow into a comfortable and convenient city for life. Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Kommersant provided readers with overview reports from the meeting, and the Moscow government website published a full transcript.
Continuing the improvement theme: "Moscow News" met with the new "chief artist" of the capital, Tatyana Guk, discussing with her specific steps that will be used to harmonize the architectural appearance of Moscow. The publication also published an interview with the Dean of the Graduate School of Urbanism Alexander Vysokovsky. He spoke about the plans of the Higher School of Economics to collect all its buildings in the center of the capital through careful integration into the environment: “To activate the historical environment by introducing university functions is our goal. We are not going to radically change the scale and nature of the development, but we want to transform it in such a way that it does not affect the safety and the possibility of restoring historical and cultural monuments”. You can read about another initiative to transform the surrounding space, this time in the Basmanny District, on the pages of the Big City.
In addition, The Village has posted a detailed article about the intelligent transportation system, which is planned to be implemented in the capital in the coming years. Kommersant spoke about the plans for the future North-West Expressway, Leninsky and Kutuzovsky avenues, published by the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction.
But let's pay attention to St. Petersburg, where there was also a lot of urban planning news. At the end of January, it became known that the city would create a Council for Urban Development under the chairmanship of Governor Georgy Poltavchenko. The participants will include representatives of the authorities and the public, as well as experts from various fields. The conference dedicated to the Council was reported by St. Petersburg Vedomosti. During the discussion, the experts discussed the tasks of the Council, concluding that the primary goal is to develop a strategy for the development of the city for 20-25 years ahead, which will become the basis for the General Plan. The council's clause is expected to appear in the coming weeks.
Last week's "hot topic" - the second stage of the Mariinsky Theater, was again discussed in the press. Note that this time there were more restrained assessments. Thus, Interfax cited the opinion of Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the Hermitage, who called on the public to refrain from critical assessments and calls for the demolition of the stage until the end of construction. On the pages of Colta.ru, Kirill Ass, defending the new building, said: "Only the lack of habit of modern architecture in the urban environment of St. Petersburg, which has avoided abundant and dramatic architectural interventions during the 20th century, can serve as an excuse for indignation." And Karpovka published an interview with Oleg Basilashvili, who ardently and sincerely stood up for Valery Gergiev: “One cannot but say a word of gratitude about this to a person who has devoted half his life to ensuring that the theater has several more wonderful theatrical musical rooms.” By the way, Valery Gergiev held a rehearsal tour for journalists at the Mariinsky-2 this week in order to demonstrate the acoustics of the new premises, Izvestia reported.
Many publications in the St. Petersburg press were devoted to the transformation of two significant territories for St. Petersburg: Apraksin Dvor and Sennaya Square.
Last week, Smolny announced the termination of the contract for the reconstruction of Apraksin Yard with Glavstroy-SPb. According to the newspaper "Nevskoe Vremya", the official reason was the failure of the company to fulfill its obligations: the renovation of the territory was to be completed in 2013. Now, as reported by IA REGNUM, Smolny plans to develop a new concept for the development of a depressed area, and then hold a competition for the implementation of the project. It is curious that, having learned about the termination of the contract with Glavstroy-SPb, the city defenders immediately joined the case. As Karpovka said, Living City and the Association of Art and Craft Workshops of St. Petersburg are advocating for the creation of a “City of Masters” in Apraksin Dvor. The activists have already sent a letter with a proposal to Governor Georgy Poltavchenko.
Renovation of the Sennaya Square territory also remained in the spotlight of the press. According to "St. Petersburg Vedomosti", on February 11, the first meeting of the Board of Trustees was held, at which the draft design of the temple and proposals on how to harmoniously fit it into the existing building were considered. According to the publication, unofficially, the cost of rebuilding the temple is estimated at 1 billion rubles, and in 2013 it is scheduled to complete the design.
In addition, this week Izvestia reported on the initiative of the Moscow City Duma deputies, proposing to revoke licenses from unscrupulous developers if cultural heritage sites are damaged. Continuing the theme of preserving architectural monuments, on the Arkhnadzor website, Alexei Dedushkin told the story of the buildings of Moscow baths, which are becoming less and less numerous in the capital every year.
